Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 11:31PM I wanted to share with you a little side project I've recently completed with a good friend. Jigsaw Junior for iPad (iTunes link) is a kid's jigsaw puzzle app we've just released — read more at the official Jigsaw Junior site here.
Definitely got a 'laundry list' of things to improve, so I'd love to hear your feedback to fill in the gaps.
Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 12:05PM 
Here's the segmented control section from iMovie '09.
Bit of a surprise — I'd not noticed the subtle colouring of two of the icons before.
Friday, February 26, 2010 at 10:02AM I love Omni's commitment to iPad software design by making their own hardware prototypes. To paraphrase Alan Kay:
People who are really serious about software mockups should make their own hardware mockups.
Friday, February 12, 2010 at 11:54AM OMT in San Francisco #3: 'Let it beep' from One More Thing on Vimeo.
Video interview with Jim Reekes creator of that fat C chord boooooonnng.
NOTE: Introduction is in Dutch, interview in English.
via @jasperhauser
Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 7:44AM Three events in my life collided recently. One: For some time I had been thinking about making a holiday season screensaver to give away to you, my beloved readers. Two: I recently finished listening to the audiobook No Impact Man and have been quite moved by it. Three: I recently saw a documentary focussing on Europe's plans for reducing carbon emissions. In this documentary there featured a Greenpeace office worker discussing the urgent need for reduced carbon emissions. Behind him was his desktop computer, displaying a screensaver.
How do these things relate? Glad you asked. I've been thinking a lot about the environmental impact of my industry — software design — and feeling pretty good about it's low environmental impact when offered as download-only. I don't feel so good about the polycarbonate discs that are still a major way of distributing software. Discs that will outlast your children's children, but will be practically useless beyond just a few years worth of OS updates.
I feel even worse about the actual computing machines they run on. Consumer electronics surely must be the most toxic mainstream industry there is. What other industry takes a combination of very rare elements like gold and coltan, combines them with some very poisonous ones like BFRs and mercury, and then places them in tiny formations with hundreds of other substances in a single, practically impossible-to-recycle unit? And to top it off, makes that unit go from highly desirable, to not worth giving away, within a decade.
Once the computer is made, much of it's life will be spent idling. Checking back a million times a second to see if the human on the other end has pressed a key. And heck, maybe that human walked out to lunch anyway. The computer doesn't really know*. Worse, sometimes a computer will turn on a "screensaver" and show that instead of sleeping the display. Using electricity when doing nothing useful.
Screens don't need saving. We do. If a computer is not being used, it should be off, or asleep. And if a screen is not being used, it should be off, or asleep. So dear reader, that's why Santa is not bringing you a UI&us screensaver this Christmas. I hope you don't mind.
* I've been looking into repurposing an older computer for my mum, as a way to keep her connected. Big fonts, and some simple system to display the latest photos and tweets on the screen with no interaction required. One idea has been to make the computer automatically detect her motion when she's next to it, and wake up. That way she can see the latest news with no interaction at all. It doesn't seem too hard. I really don't understand why computers don't do it already.
Design, electricity, environment, green, screensavers in Announcements Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 11:46PM The Ableton Novation Launchpad is a hardware control interface to the Ableton Live performance software. It's taken a lot longer than I expected for this form factor to hit mainstream—but now that it has, expect to see this appearing in music videos in 3 months and in every garage band within 12. Via the excellent CreateDigitalMusic
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 9:20AM Design, Paper, Prototyping, interface, music in innovation Sunday, September 6, 2009 at 5:44PM 
This is a question that has intrigued me for some time: why do car radios sometimes have identical dials for 'volume' and for 'tuning'. I find this a little frustrating. I've seen this more than once, so I'm guessing it's a design decision for some reason like the following:
a) It's pretty to have knobs the same
b) It's cheaper to manufacture identical parts
c) It encourages drivers to use the steering wheel controls
d) Who cares—it's not that hard to learn
What do you think?
Friday, August 7, 2009 at 1:43PM 
I just became aware of a nice eye-tracking study on website forms, using samples from Yahoo! Mail, Googlemail, Hotmail and eBay. The 10 Web form design guidelines are the result of eyetracking data captured by CXpartners, and contains subtle and practical tips. via @johnparillo via @georgesduverger
Design, Forms, cognitive science, eye-tracking, web in Research Friday, June 19, 2009 at 11:08AM Kitchens and bathrooms:
Used regularly by almost everyone. Often shared and swapped, leading to broadly-experienced users. Long update iteration times. Great insight has been drawn from them. Great designers started their careers designing things for them. Time for me to add my 2c.
All the houses I've lived in have an inch or so of bench-top between the kitchen sink and the wall behind it. The space has always been part of the bench-top, often melamine covered chipboard, which is damaged if water seeps into it. This section is in a prime position to get wet, is hard to clean and isn't big enough for storage. I've usually stood my chopping board there, but it's not really the right place for it, with it occasional slipping and breaking of a wine glass etc.
Why is the gap there?
Best guess, is it's an engineering compromise to fit the sink in. Second guess, it's aesthetically pleasing for the sink 'island' to be surrounded by bench-top. Third guess is that it's a usability factor like providing space for the tap to rotate over to clear the general sink area.
Can anyone help explain?
